🚀 go-pugleaf

"Karen Lee" <maverick_1140@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2P9i8.3835$Vx1.309788@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> "SlipperySlope" <THEGook@zip.net> wrote in message
> news:3C89150D.51CA952B@zip.net...
>
> > White folks don't know how STUPIDLY RIDICULOUS they look trying to eat
> > rice from a plate!
> >
> > Long grain rice is the staple in chinese food.  Long grain rice is NOT
> > sticky and DOES NOT glob up like short-grain served in japanese and
> > korean places.  When I'm in a restaurant watching the idiot whiteys
> > trying to pick up long-grain rice FROM A PLATE it takes everything
> > inside to keep myself from going up to them and tell to eat with a
> > goddamn fork cause they look like FUCKING IDIOTS!
> >
> > If you "must" eat with chopsticks THEN DO THE FOLLOWING: ask the waiter
> > for a ****RICE BOWL****.  TAKE THE RICE ***FROM THE PLATE*** AND PUT
> > SOME INTO THE RICE BOWL THEN *****SCOOP THE RICE INTO YOUR MOUTH WITH
> > THE CHOPSTICKS*****.  IF YOU BOTHER TO PAY ATTENTION, YOU MIGHT NOTICE
> > THAT THAT IS THE WAY THE CHINESE GET THE RICE INTO THEIR MOUTHS ****WHEN
> > THEY EAT RICE WITH CHOPSTICKS****!
> >
> > Stop and think for a minute how stupid and ridiculous you look trying to
> > pick up grains of rice from a plate with chopsticks!!
>
>
> Geez, calm down.
>
> I know that long-grain rice is not chopstick-friendly, and yes, people
> should realize this.  But I'm Korean (American), and that whole
> sliding-the-rice-from-the-bowl-into-the-mouth thing is pretty foreign to
me.
>
> Also, in America, eating any kind of food straight from the bowl/plate is
a
> no-no, as far as table manners go.  Eating long grain rice the Chinese way
> is pretty much like you're "drinking" the rice, with chopsticks to help
you
> along.  I've tried it (when in Rome), and it didn't feel right.  Besides,
> that's not how I eat rice at home.
>
> Here's another question, though: Asian people slurping their soup.  I've
> been told that *all* Asian people slurp their soup (in Asia).  And when I
> was in Asia, that is what I saw.  But my parents don't slurp, and they're
> from Asia, too.  So who's right?  Someone please tell me.
>
> And sometimes I go to Asian restaurants (such as Vietnamese restaurants,
> where they serve a lot of soup), and all the Asian customers will be
happily
> slurping away.  But then there will be always be a couple of American
> customers who are looking around and giving dirty looks to everyone around
> them.

Now THAT is an example of a non-Asian looking stupid, not a relatively
innocent question about how to eat rice with chopsticks.  And, for Mr. SS's
information, I have no difficulty eating long-grain rice with chopsticks --
it's not a uniquely-Asian skill.

When I've been in China, I've also noticed that everyone slurps their soup.
From what I was told, this is how they cool it, rather than the western
custom of blowing on it which (again, I've been told), is considered odd and
rather rude.

As for who's right . . . "when in Rome."  In "real" Asian restaurants (and,
of course, in Asia), as opposed to those westernized restaurants that cater
primarily to non-Asians, it's okay to slurp, and it is only polite for us
gweilo to use Asian utensils.  In the "fake" westernized restaurants,
anything goes.

One thing I've noticed, though, is that everywhere I've gone in Asia, and in
the authentic Asian restaurants in which I've eaten in the U.S., the
host/matire 'd/waiter would always try to accomodate me, either by asking
whether I would like western utensils, or discretely placing a fork on the
table next to me.

Perhaps this is something Mr. SS should take to heart.


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